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Betty Brennan reached out to the Illinois FarmLink team in July 2023. She wondered if our team could give her ideas on the management of her ~250 acres of farmland and natural areas in the Potomac area in Vermilion County and connect her with a farmer who might share her goals and values.
We’re happy to report that a little more than a year later Betty has begun a new farmer-tenant relationship with the conservation-minded father-son duo, Eric and Frank Rademacher. The Land Connection’s Illinois FarmLink program has helped along the way.
Betty grew up on a farm in Streator, Illinois, and was her father’s helper with the diverse livestock.
“We had all the animals,” she says, “and I always enjoyed the land and outdoors. But I was always working when most of my friends just did things like take out the garbage. It was the amount of hard physical work that I thought I’d get away from.”
After college, she ended up with desk jobs, even as she continued to have horses. One of those desk jobs came from the launch of Taylor Studios by her and her husband Joe. Taylor Studios grew into a very successful company developing educational displays for museums, nature centers, and other similar organizations.
Throughout all of that she would find herself wondering if she could farm someday. Was that even possible?
Things moved from wondering to a bold step forward in 2000 when Betty and her ex-husband bought 40 acres south of the Middle Fork of the Vermillion River together as friends. Then, over time, more buying opportunities came up as neighbors wanted to sell to her because they saw her stewarding the land carefully. As she acquired more land, Betty converted some of the acres that had been in row crops back to natural habitat and began raising livestock and horses. She called her land Bluestem Springs Farm.
When Betty reached out to Illinois FarmLink in the summer of 2023, she had begun thinking more deeply about how she should steward the 125+ acres that was being conventionally row cropped. Like a growing number of farmland owners today, she had become more aware of the negative impacts on wildlife, water, and even human health of conventional, chemical-dependent farming. A naturally curious person, she began learning all she could about farming in ways that were more natural. This led her to regenerative agriculture.
What if, she wondered, her farmland could be transitioned into farming that brought the soil back to life and had benefits for wildlife?
After understanding her situation, we agreed that a visit to the farm would be helpful. Nathan Aaberg represented Illinois FarmLink and also invited Seth Waibel of Waibel Farmland Services to join in light of Seth’s experience with farmland management and his interest in regenerative farming.
A big part of the conversation was whether Betty’s tenant at the time might be willing to move in a more regenerative direction – adding cover crops, using less chemicals, lengthening the crop rotation, etc. Betty explored that with her tenant. He was not willing to change.
Fortunately, Seth knew of a father-and-son farming duo nearby who did things differently – Eric and Frank Rademacher. Nathan introduced the Rademachers to Betty, and shortly thereafter, Eric and Frank invited Betty to their home farm.
“I knew we had much in common,” said Betty, “when I drove up their driveway and saw hawks hanging out in their crop fields.” The Rademachers were happy to show her around and answer her many questions about how they farmed.
Before long, Betty and the Rademachers were discussing whether the Rademachers might farm her land. Ironically, Eric and Frank weren’t really sure they wanted the additional land, largely because it was a good distance away from their home ground in Gifford.
“Fifteen miles might not be bad for a car ride,” says Frank, “but when your tractor can only do fifteen miles per hour, that’s a drive.”
What is even more ironic is that before 2010 Eric and Frank didn’t think they would be farmers at all. Eric grew up one of three sons on a small farm. Because of the size of the farm, adding more people to the farm business wasn’t feasible. Eric subsequently ran the family lumberyard, while Frank eventually began studying nursing at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Then Eric’s father’s advancing age began to catch up with him. Eric was the only son available and interested in helping out. Soon Frank began helping as well over the summers. To their surprise, both Eric and Frank discovered they enjoyed farming and really enjoying doing it together. Frank soon transferred to the University of Illinois where he began studying agronomy in the School of Crop Sciences. He graduated in 2018 and immediately began working full time with his father. And they haven’t looked back.
Eric and Frank love being outside in nature. They love the variety of things they do each week. And they appreciate the flexibility farming offers for being available for family and community.
When it came to Betty’s wish that they would consider farming her land, Eric and Frank eventually came to the same conclusion. They should help her out, in part because of their shared values. “It was so refreshing to be on the same page with a landowner,” says Frank.
During a pivotal meeting later in the summer of 2024, Nathan and Erica Peters of Illinois FarmLink visited the farm again to facilitate a more detailed conversation between Betty and Rademachers. The goal was to flesh out more tangibly how a crop share lease arrangement would be structured and what exact approach to farm practices the Rademachers would take over time. A few months after that, Illinois FarmLink also shared lease development resources and provided feedback on the first draft of the crop share lease.
“Illinois FarmLink’s facilitation really helped us to get to know each other better,” said Frank. “We got beyond the superficial. When we didn’t have answers immediately for all of Nathan’s questions, we were forced to think more deeply about how the farming and relationship would work.”
Under the crop share lease, Eric and Frank will be farming 125 acres of Betty’s land and will develop detailed cropping plans for the following calendar year together with Betty each winter. The current thinking is that the Rademachers will grow soybeans next spring and then plant wheat as a cover crop in late 2025, which will allow for planting of a diverse cover crop mix in the late summer. All of that should boost the life of the soil underground and support insect and bird life above ground. That, in turn, should contribute to productive and profitable harvests, even when weather conditions become dry or wet.
“In a crop share arrangement like this, the landowner partners with the farmer rather than just waiting passively for the rent check,” says Nathan. “The farmer and landowner share expenses and revenue so they’re sharing risk and reward. It’s a great way for the landowner to learn a lot about farming, too.”
“I’m really enthused about the direction of my farm and my land and the collaboration I’ve begun with Eric and Frank,” says Betty. “I’m grateful for the help of Illinois FarmLink along the way. The introduction to the Rademachers was a gamechanger.”